>> pelley: tonight, the east coast struggles to recover from hurricane sandy. up and down the coast homes have been destroyed by winds, by water, by fire. >> and we're just shocked, shocked that it's happened to us. >> pelley: millions are without power. roadways and tunnels are flooded. >> it is beyond anything i thought i'd ever see. >> pelley: dozens of people have died. the damage is in the tens of billions of dollars. the cleanup and recovery could take months. on day one, we'll have extensive coverage from our entire cbs news team. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley reporting tonight from lower manhattan. >> pelley: this is a special expanded edition. good evening.

we're on the southern tip of manhattan, the area known as the battery, named for the battery of cannons erected here in the 17th century to defend the young city. but nothing could defend new york city from the wall of water that came crashing ashore in one of the biggest storms so far of the 21st century. hurricane sandy filled the tunnels here with floodwaters unlike anything the city has seen in decades. the storm brought misery to 14 states from north carolina to maine. at least 35 people in nine states have been killed. and more than seven million homes and businesses up and down the coast are without electricity tonight. officials say it could be days, if not weeks, before all the power is restored. close to one million people have been evacuated. more than 18,000 are living in shelters. downtown new york city, the financial capital of the world, was largely shut down for a

second day with the power out and the streets flooded. governor andrew cuomo called the scene "frightening." >> the hudson river was coming over from the west, the east river was coming over from the east. >> pelley: subways became waterways. a boat wound up on railroad trks and the governor of new jersey couldn't believe his eyes. >> there were houses in the middle of route 35. >> pelley: first estimates of the damage are in the $20 billion range. one of the worst areas of wholesale destruction is the breezy point neighborhood of queens on long island. a fire broke out here. flames blasted by hurricane- force winds burned 80 to 100 homes to ashes. it is not known whether anyone was killed in the conflagration. president obama, who will see the damage in new jersey firsthand tomorrow, had a message today for those who lost so much. >> we are standing behind you and we are going to do

everything we can to help you get back on your feet. >> pelley: we have a team of cbs news correspondents covering the aftermath of the hurricane. first, we will go to elaine quijano in new jersey, the state where the storm made landfall last night. >> reporter: scott, here in the town this town the problem was tidal surge. one resident said it was as if someone had turned on a giant faucet. there was no time to think and barely any time to escape. the rescue started at daybreak in this town, boat after boat filled with people who spent a terrifying night stranded in their homes with waters rising. this woman was in her basement apartment shortly after midnight. >> i was a sliding door and i was like, oh, my gosh. my bed was floating, i got a brand new sofa that's floating. >> reporter: the town's only fire house was destroyed. teams from surrounding towns

joined new jersey national guard troops in the effort to save hundreds of people. staff sergeant katie cataldo said it was tricky and dangerous work. >> we can only get so close to the homes and if we have to get out of a vehicle and assist in getting them up, we will. >> reporter: moonachie and neighboring little ferry were swamped by a tidal surge of the hackensack river. both towns were washed over by more than five feet of water. this woman was in little ferry with her young daughter to help her aging parents. >> within a matter of minutes i think where the basement got completely flooded there's an apartment down there that's completely destroyed and basically we're just waiting for this rescue. >> reporter: thousands of people from both communities had to be bused to temporary shelters. among them, christina. hurricane sandy claimed her home her belongings and her car but give her perspective. >> i'm safe, my dog is safe, my neighbors are safe.

houses and cars you can replace. it's really not what's important at all. >> pelley: long beach island, a barrier beach on the new jersey shore, was evacuated ahead of sandy. one police official said there todait could be days or weeks before residents are allowed back. chip reid is about to show you why. he's in somers point. >> reporter: from the air, long beach island, new jersey, appears to be crisscrossed by canals but, in fact, the storm surge brought ashore by sandy filled the streets with water. many homes on the barrier island are partially submerged. some knocked off their foundations. whole fleets of boats have been swept from their moorings and deposited on what was once dry ground or left in crumpled heaps. search and rescue crews spent the daylight hours looking for jersey shore residents who may have been stranded by the fierce storm. on another barrier island, some houses in the town of seaside heights are half buried in sand.

one couple whose home was inundated with water clung to a tree until they were rescued by police. nearby, a pier with an amusement park was destroyed when it was swamped by enormous waves. state officials say several of the state's barrier island beaches have disappeared. the task of cleaning up here, they say, is a mammoth job that's just beginning. barrier islands run along more than three quarters of new jersey's atlantic coast and, scott, officials here say they played an enormously important role in protecting the mainland from hurricane sandy's first punch. >> pelley: let me show you where we are right now. we are less than a mile from the new york stock exchange, but have a look at this. this is normally a busy roadway and that is a tunnel down there. the sign says 12'8 of clearance, but it looks like about ten feet of that is underwater tonight. new york was a tale of two cities as the storm came in. here's what manhattan usually

looks like with its lights shining brightly. but last night lower manhattan south of 39th street where we are now was plunged into darkness after flooding caused an explosion at a con-edison electrical substation. a quarter of a million homes and businesses lost power. jim axelrod reports the trouble was just beginning. >> reporter: workers are now taking down the boards that were supposed to keep water out of subway stations and loading sandbags back on to the truck. having done their best in a battle they could have never won. there was no way to prepare that would have kept the water out? >> no, no. no way. how are you going to stop water? water does what it wants to do. >> reporter: seven tunnels linking manhattan to brooklyn and queens are flooded. the signals, switches and third rails are covered with sludge. m.t.a. workman john o'neil went down for a look in the south

ferry station and reported back. >> it's probably up to the two poles from the top. full to the top. forget about it. >> reporter: even after the water has gone away, 6,200 subway cars must be inspected along with 600 miles of track and 468 subway stations. >> the m.t.a. last night faced a disaster as devastating at it has ever faced. >> reporter: joe loda is chairman of the metropolitan transit authority. >> sandy wreaked havoc on the entire transportation system, the subways, buses, metro north and the long island railroad. in every single borough of the city and every single county of the m.t.a. region. >> reporter: utility workers are pumping water round the clock, water that engulfed cars and flooded underground power equipment. nearly 250,000 customers are out of power in manhattan alone. no power means no traffic lights in lower manhattan and no lights

means chaos at intersections. and no mass transit makes these the most sought-after vehicle in new york. you're the most popular guy in the city today, huh? >> yes, sir! >> reporter: city busses will resume partial service tonight, full service tomorrow and, to help get the city moving again, scott, those buses will operate free of charge both tonight and tomorrow. >> pelley: people in the new york area lucky enough to have power turned on their television this is morning and saw something amazing. a few miles to the east of us on the rockaway peninsula in queens an entire neighborhood was up in flames. michelle miller is in breezy point. >> reporter: this is breezy point shortly after the inferno started at 11:00 p.m. last night. blocks of homes engulfed in flames. firefighters hauled hoses through flooded streets. nearly 200 firefighters were called in to battle as the wind-

whipped flames jumped from house to house. breezy point is a close-knit neighborhood of mostly firefighters and cops. danny mckeefery is a volunteer fireman who rushed here to help his brother save his home. >> everything was on fire. flames were 50 feet up in the air. just taking everything out. there was no stopping it. >> reporter: nothing you could do? >> no. there was no-- whatever-- there's no water pressure, there's no-- we're trying to draft out of the ocean but then you're sucking up everything you see on the ground so it was clogging the hoses. there was anything we could really do. >> reporter: by daybreak, more than 80 homes were still smoldering. in this yard, only a religious icon left standing in the debris. a couple of miles away, another

block of homes was left in ashes. catherine sullivan lived in the rockway ways her entire life but was unprepared for what she saw today. >> so many people have lost their homes now, fire, it's just burning and it's very upsetting for all of us. so if anybody's out there to be thinking of us, say your prayers for us, that's what you can do. >> reporter: many in this community lost family members in 9/11. more died next door in bell harbor a few months later when american flight 587 crashed. but even with this latest tragedy, many told us they are not leaving. they will rebuild. >> the whole family lost everything. but i don't know, we'll figure it out. >> reporter: will you rebuild here? >> we have to. there's nowhere else to go. >> reporter: this is the only road leading in or out of breezy point and many residents after surveying the damage are going someplace, someplace now. we walked with a lot of them and as they passed a neighborhood they'd ask "how are you? what can i do for you?"

and they lost everything. you hear that term "strong sense of community" in a lot of places scott, but here you get sense they really mean it. ense they really mean it. >> pelley: sandy lost its hurricane status yesterday but it's still packing strong winds. the center is about 50 miles east of pittsburgh, maximum sustained winds now about 45 miles an hour. as the storm moves west/northwest, storm warnings are up for parts of the great lakes. will sandy mean higher gas prices? the coast guard searches for a captain who went down with his ship in the storm. and an entire town in the dark tonight when the "cbs evening news" continues. if you're living with moderate to severe crohn's disease, and it feels like your life revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab.

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stevenson's neighborhood and pushed its pier into a pile. firefighters pumped out flooded basements here, but the problem that worried amy nicholas most was no electricity. why is this area hit so hard? >> the trees, the trees went down. so there's so many trees down in the park where the power lines are. >> reporter: about 94% of stonington, connecticut, is without power. diving street neighborhood david forest remembers how long it took to get electricity restored after hurricane irene. how is it to know you're going into a period of a week or so without power? >> i think it's better than last year, we kept thinking it was going to be everyday we'd get power. >> reporter: just next door, susan crowe says she's prepared for a number of rough days. >> you can have a somehow ere but it's a cold shower. you have no hot water. of course, you have nothing to cook with. >> reporter: down the street, we bumped into utility contractor rusty maxwell who said he was too busy to stop for long. what's involved with getting the

power back on here? >> well, the power company has to go evaluation all the feeders and the power sources and go from there. >> reporter: scott, this is what those utility crews are up against: giant trees on top of power lines. these trees have to be removed before power can be restored. >> pelley: we wondered if sandy would disrupt gasoline supplies. it turns out six refineries in the northeast were affected by the storm. two of them shut down and four scaled back production. all of them are expected back in full operation within a week. we spoke to one analyst who told us that gasoline may be in short supply for just a few days in the northeast but there should be no increase in prices. in a moment, we'll talk with the man who is managing the disaster in new york city, police commissioner ray kelly. ♪

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days like this. kelly told us the hurricane has brought the worst destruction to the city since the terrorist attack. his concerns now are public safety with nearly a million people in a blackout and continuing to search for survivors. how many people in new york city are without power? >> about three quarters of a million people. 750,000 people without power. >> pelley: what is the law enforcement and public safety concern with that? >> well, we're still a rescue mode. certainly staten island we know people are still stranded, trapped in some locations so we're engaged in that along with the fire department then we have a public safety security mission that we have to carry through. a lot of dark areas in the city. we know that we have to have a significant police presence in those locations. >> pelley: you had to a

fly-around in the city in your helicopter today. what did you see? >> lots of devastation, lots of damage. it means a tremendous amount of recovery work. as i say, we're still very much a rescue mode. >> pelley: when you saw the sight of the breezy point fire you thought what? >> well, it looked like something i've never seen in new york city because of the number of houses and the fact that they were all totally leveled. 80 something houses just totally gone. >> pelley: there's obviously no comparison in terms of loss of life but i wonder if there are aspects of this that are even more difficult than 9/11? >> well, it's hard to compare 9/11 with such a horrific event. what we have here, of course, is the devastation spread out over a greater area. but it's -- it's the worst thing that's happened to this city certainly since 9/11. >> pelley: police commissioner ray kelly. the city is slowly working its

way back to normal. partial bus service was restored this evening and the stock market will reopen tomorrow for the first trading session of the week. the coast guard is not giving up hope of finding the captain of mutiny on the bounty in 1789. when a manhattan hospital lost power last night, our dr. jon lapook responded with many other physicians to the emergency. you'll hear his story next.

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manhattan had to be evacuated after the backup generators failed. john has new details tonight about the blackout that left hundreds of patients at risk. >> this is the basement. >> reporter: the dark halls of nyu langone medical center now lead to a lecture hall submerged under 12 feet of water. >> it looks like a swimming pool. >> reporter: dr. roberta grossman is the ceo of the hospital. >> we had failure of our primary power, secondary power, backup, all the backup systems failed within 30 minutes. so we went from functioning perfectly to being completely out of power. >> reporter: it quickly became a race against time to evacuate 300 patients including 20 newborns from the neonatal intensive care unit. when i arrived shortly before midnight with a doctor, ambulances were lined up waiting to transport patients to nearby hospitals. >> blackout here. >> reporter: the doctor demonstrated how hospital personnel used plastic sleds to

evacuate patients down dark narrow staircases. >> there were two things that had to be taken care of. one was making sure that everybody actually got off of the floor and they weren't left there. the other was figuring out who was the sickest, who do you bring down first. >> reporter: 31-year-old choicestein chin was in the intensive care unit with complications following a liver transplant. christine chin was taken down 14 floors on a sled. >> every turn and corner, the great thing about it is they would keep asking me, are you okay? >> reporter: chin was transferred to mount sinai medical center and is resting comfortably. is this the worst-case scenario for somebody who runs a hospital? >> hard to imagine a worse case but the worst case would have been if we lost one patient. that would have been the worst case. >> reporter: everybody got out safely thanks to an extraordinary team effort on a day when everything else went wrong. dr. john lapook, cbs news, new york. >> some of our cbs stations will be leaving us now for local programming. but for many of you, this special expanded edition of the "cbs evening news" will continue in a moment. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com

>> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald. good evening, i'm allen martin. >> i'm dana king. a contentious campaign in the south bay just got downright nasty. >> oh, yeah. it all started with some sneaky activity in the dark and some sneaking suspicions. cbs 5 reporter len ramirez shows us how a case of yard sign stealing blew up and a camera was rolling. len. >> we haven't seen this in a long time in san jose. we are talking about a superheated city council race one where the future of pension reform plans hang in the balance. it's been dirty and nasty and last night it got potential buy dangerous. >> reporter: sliced up campaign signs and a roughed up candidate spouse is what happened when late night political shenanigans apparently went too far. >> he moodily became very verbally and physically aggressive immediately. he charged after the